Nadaness In Motion is the book blog owned by Nada Adel Sobhi and it is where honest book reviews meet author interviews, guest posts, and personal writing ranging from poetry to short stories alongside the Takhayyal/Imagine writing prompt challenge. ---
“You cannot kill a breeze, a wind, a fragrance; you cannot kill a dream or an ambition.” - Michel Onfray

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Eden
Forest is a novella and the first instalment in The
Saskia Trilogy by Aoife Marie Sheridan.

Narrated
in the first person present tense, Eden Forest opens in Saskia with
Marta giving a description of the land and alerting the reader to her
pregnancy, which we later know is from a love affair with the King of Saskia.
We also learn about Saskian laws and traditions and how Saskians are immortal
and born with an affinity of air, water, earth, fire or spirit. At first
glance, Marta appears to be a caring person.

The
reader learns that Saskia is a world parallel to earth and that a fire barrier
separating the two worlds can be crossed but with great difficulty.

Eden
Forest is written from several perspectives, all in the
first person; however we are told whose point of view we are reading at the
beginning of each chapter, avoiding any possible confusion. It is a very
interesting way of writing – the first I've read seen – and it gives character
depth. Through this technique, Sheridan merges with each character making them
come to life on the pages of her novella.

The
author has an abundance of intriguing characters, but what I liked most was how
each character has a specific role to play in the story – even eight-year-old
Mei. Some have minor roles but are expected to have much bigger ones in the
coming parts of the trilogy.

As the
novella progresses, two characters stand out in contradiction; Marta and her
daughter Sarajane. Whereas Sarajane is caring, believable, down to earth,
intelligent and understanding, her mother, Marta, is unmotherly-like, as
opposed to what we have seen in the first chapter. A face-off between Sarajane
and King Morrick makes this point clear. Moreover, most of the time we see
Marta, she is crying; yet the reader feels that her emotions are not deep. And
when she finally sees her daughter after a long absence, all she is concerned
with is food! (Of all things!)

Another
interesting character is the conflicting, contradictory Tristan, King Morrick's
head Guardian and who is later given the task to retrieve, or rather kidnap,
Sarajane. Until the end of Eden Forest, the reader cannot read this
particular character.

The massive contrast between Saskia's King and Queen makes the
reader wonder how they ended up together. That bit comes at the end of the
story.

Eden
Forest is a quick and easy read. Its pace is fair at the
beginning but starting chapter three, the pace and events become intense. You cannot
put the book down and you feel the need finish the novella and skip work and
sleep in the process.

I truly
enjoyed Aoife Sheridan's Eden Forest and can hardly wait for the next
two parts, which I expect will have more details about the elemental affinities
and focus more on characters briefly mentioned or introduced like Carew.

I've read sci-fi and I've read fantasy but
sci-fi-fantasy that's new and I have to admit it's rather cool!

Doppelgänger by Shawn Stern is certainly a bit of a new genre for me. It's
a novella but with a novel's weight in all the details, research,
characterisation and depth it entails.

The novel starts with a lab scene, an infant is being extracted from a failed
experiment and a female scientist gives your life to save the child. The
following chapters trace the life of this child growing up into Shane Fisher, a
too-ordinary book store manager.

The novel shifts between Shane and another character called Cole, a martial
artist and assassin, and whom the reader later finds out is a replica of Shane
from the experiment mentioned earlier.

Naturally, when the two characters come in contact 'all hell breaks loose' as
one of the chapters is adequately called.

The description throughout the novel is detailed and vivid. I loved the
descriptions of Trent and Manny, one is described as a dwarf with a malicious
smile and the other is described as it is an ape among other huge animals, and
is nothing short of a T-rex: big, bloodthirsty and stupid.

Although Shane and Cole are very different, you can't help but like both,
especially as there is a lot of Shane in all of us.

Fragile too is a likeable character with intense depth and importance to the
novel.

"When performed correctly, there is little difference between science and
magic." A note Fragile makes to himself and it sort of sums up this book.

Doppelgänger ends at the climactic point and I can't wait for the second
instalment, which I've been told is called 'Cabal' and should be out
later this year.

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Seeing Past Sickness is a collection of 17 pieces
varying between poetry and short stories on getting over or past illness and
sickness. It is worth noting that all proceeds to this collection go to a
foundation that provides scholarships for students affected by chronic illness.

Commenting on 17 pieces will make this a lengthy
commentary so I'll comment on what I believe are the 'bestest' pieces in this
collection.

The opening piece to Seeing Past Sickness is a poem titled
'Bridge' by Seker Salis. It is an enjoyable piece with a nice flow. It is,
also, a beautiful opening to this collection.

The first short story is called 'Day by Day' by my
favourite writer Aria Glazki. The wording, flow, and characterisation are perfect.
It is a 10-star piece.

It is shortly followed by the beautiful and uplifting
poem 'Define Us Not' by Alison LeBlanc. Here are a few lines: "Life is full of mystery/and pain and grief and war/but
all that I can tell you is/there's plenty more in store".

This is followed by a slightly odd but quite
interesting story about overcoming obstacles called 'Uncle Ed' by Kathy
DeFlane. The story is told by a fairly funny narrator.

Several pieces in, we get the poem 'Hope', written by
Carrie Renee McAlister. It is the eleventh piece in Seeing Past Sickness. It is
as the title suggests a hopeful poem that opens with a fresh and creative
image: "For so long I lay dormant/like a
thousand bulbs/refusing to bloom". I
absolutely loved this piece.

The short story 'She Loved Tommie' by C. B. Jennings
nearly brought me to tears. Meanwhile, 'Professor' by Simon Quellen Field is a
short story written as one long conversation. I have never read a story written
like this before, but I must applaud the author for absolute creativity and
ability to piece together such a delicate story in such a form.

'Professor' is followed by 'Sacrifice' another piece by Aria Glazki; a
poem this time about the painful struggle the chronically-ill endure to merely
live and get through their days. It is a slow but heart-wrenching piece. Aria's
poetry is as impeccable as her short stories.

Then comes another short story by a writer I've wanted
to read for a while now: 'The Daily Grind' by Margit Sage. It is slightly
similar to Glazki's 'Day by Day' piece but it is nonetheless different, with
its own struggle and flavour. The protagonist is a writer, therefore, many can
relate to this piece in several ways.

Seeing Past Sickness ends with another poem by Alison
LeBlanc, called 'The Picture of Tolerance', which I wish I could quote whole,
but will have to do with these lines: "Chalk in lines of tolerance/So bold and very clear/Paint new hope for
all the youth/And shadow every fear". This poem is the perfect conclusion to this collection of
healing, strength and rebirth.

I am glad to have got this opportunity to read Seeing
Past Sickness, which was already on my to-read list. It also gave me the chance
to read pieces by writers I have met online and by others, whose work I look
forward to reading more of in the future.

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Scorching heat emanates from the
pavement. Even the sun seems to pity the land below, unknowing how to handle
the heat it brings forth.

To top it all, water begins to run
short.

It's summer, an exceptionally hot
summer, and all everyone wants is to get away to a sea breeze.

My entry WON Over Achiever in the 55-word challenge - YAYIt was an entry for Over Achiever forthis week's 55 Word Challenge. Used all three pictures and was mostly inspired by this year's summer in Egypt - several heat waves and a two-day water cut.